


Olicity AU

by Arrowsforolicity



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M, Tumblr: olicityhiatusproject
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-15
Updated: 2016-07-18
Packaged: 2018-04-09 11:14:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 9,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4346471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arrowsforolicity/pseuds/Arrowsforolicity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An AU where Moira decides it's time she takes a hold of Oliver's love life and find him a girlfriend to settle down with. However, plans go awry when Oliver drops his phone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. We Clicked

"Oliver, you are in your thirties and still haven't settled down with anyone stable for more than a week. You need a good stable woman who will help your public image. And if you still feel the need to have multiple women in your sex life keep those relations under wraps. Anymore questions? Nope I didn't think so." Oliver groans as he listens to his mothers crazy ideas while tying his tie. However, a steady girlfriend might not be so bad. It would please his mother. Oliver is just about to completely drown her out when he here's the words,"I can find you someone."  
"Why can't I decide who she is?"  
"Because your taste in women has not always had the perfect track record. I have always had a great judge of character."  
"Well, wait- what if Thea chooses her."  
Thea looks up from her phone at the sound of her name.  
"Woah woah what did I do?"  
"You love your brother so much that you will help him find a stable woman the people will love."  
"But-" Thea stands in protest.  
"No butts. This is happening wether you like it or not."  
Thea groans and gives Oliver the I-will-kill-you-later look and storms off to her room.  
###  
"Why the hell are we at the mall?" Oliver asks Thea as he follows her in to Victoria's Secret.  
"I might as well shop while we work on your lady problem. That way it's not a complete and total failure."  
"I'm not even sure I am allowed in this store."  
"Fine you can go scope out the food court and I'll meet you there. "  
Thea resumes scanning the different bras while Oliver hauls it out of Victoria's Secret. 15 minutes later Oliver gave up on waiting and grabbed a soda. He decides to call her and see if she got side tracked shopping or if he got ditched. It went straight to voice mail.  
"Hey Thea I'm just sitting here in the food court you know, waiting for you to SHOW UP! Call me back when you get this."  
Oliver stands up and turns around to look to see if Thea was any where but when he went to slide his phone into his pocket he missed and it landed in his soda.  
"Shit!"  
The family next to him gives dirty looks but says nothing when they see him pulling the soaking wet phone from the cup.  
"Do you know if there's a Tech Village in this place?" He asks them. The woman nods, pointing to the store across the way.  
"Thank you!" He yells, half sprinting half jogging, toward the store. When he gets inside, the store is empty with the exception of a blonde sales associate chewing on a red pen.  
"EMERGENCY!" The sales woman's high blonde ponytail whips around at the sound of his voice. Her hand shoots up to the pen she is chewing on. "I just dropped my phone in a soda and now the screen won't stop flashing." She pulls the pen from her mouth, placing behind her ear beside a cartilage piercing going through the top of her ear. She pulls out a container of minuscule gray balls and takes the phone from Oliver's hand. She pops out the battery and memory card before burying the phone in the tub and sealing it.  
"Excuse me ms.... But what are those?" He gestures to the grey beads.  
"Felicity Smoak," she says using a q-tip to clean the battery and memory card. "'Those' are special created micro beads. A single one is capable of soaking up a cup of water. They pull any liquids from your phone in just a few minutes. It works like rice except less wait time and better results." Oliver stands, watch her work. She's beautiful. Wow. Those at the only thoughts running through his head as he watches her pull the phone from the tub, re install the battery and memory card, and watch the phone come back to life.  
"I'm really glad you were here to help me and not some bimbo looking for money to buy their Starbucks and commit their lives to running their vlogs. You really know what you are doing Ms. Smoak."He says watching her check the phones settings.  
"Felicity. My mother is Ms. Smoak and I don't own enough tight dresses and push-up bras to be her. " Felicity looks up for the first time since he came running in. She looks up to see the smiling face of Starling City's biggest philanthropist play boy Oliver Queen.  
"Here's your phone back, Mr. Queen." She liked the way the name rolled off her tongue. It seemed so natural.  
"Call me Oliver." He almost didn't correct her, liking how she said Mr. Queen.  
"How much do I owe you for this Felicity?"  
"Oh don't worry about it. I've been wanting to try out my 'dry outs'. Wow that rhymed. And okay 5, 4, 3, 2,-"  
"Well how about I take you to dinner instead. Let's see if my contacts still work." He types in her name and passes her the phone. She sheepishly types in her number and hands him back the phone. It buzzes with 4 new texts from Thea cursing at him that he made her rush back to the mall because he got 'scared'.  
"Thanks again." Oliver says heading back to the food court. 

He texts her a little while later while she's in line at big belly burger. "How does Italian sound? :)" She smiles, knowing exactly who the unknown number is. She inputs the name "Oliver"and leaves it at that. "Italian sounds great!" Oliver responds seconds after she texts back.  
"How's Totino's, Friday at 6?" She smiles because of the fact that her little social life is finally paying off.  
"Great :)!" She falls back on her couch as she pushes send, kicking her legs in the air. She is the love interest of Oliver QUEEN. She squeals at the top of her lungs. Finally her mother was wrong about her love life. She DID actually have one. 

She arrives first, her hair curled. She sits smoothing her dress. Until he walks in. Oliver walks in to see her in a beautiful red dress. She pushes her beautiful golden hair behind her ear and looks at him. God. Oliver new at that minute, he was falling.  
"Hey," she says.  
"Hey I'm. Wow. You look beautiful. Not that you didn't look beautiful in your uniform you are just beautifuller. Oh god I'm screwing this up." He puts his hand to his forehead, massaging his temples with his fore finger and thumb.  
"Not at all. I'm usually the one who talks in sentence fragments. All the time. Especially when I'm nervous. Like right now."  
"Don't be nervous. You don't need to be afraid of me."  
"I'm not afraid it's just that you are Oliver freaking Queen. And I'm just little old me chewing on pens."  
"It was red,"  
"Huh?"  
"The pen you were chewing on, it was red."  
She smiles, realizing that she too was falling. They spend the next ten minutes talking about her family and whatever the press didn't pick up from his, until he sees them. The hoard of paparazzi running down the street.  
"We need to go."  
"What? Why? Do I have something in my teeth?"  
Oliver doesn't have time to explain before he puts a fifty on the table and grabs Felicity. Turning her around towards the back door.  
"Just keep your head down and don't look back."  
He guides her through the back entrance where he had his body guard park for such an emergency.  
"Where to Mr. Queen?" a big burly man says from the drivers seat.  
"Will you drive Felicity's car back to her place, I can drive us."  
"Are you sure."  
Oliver holds out her keys.  
"Alright."  
Oliver helps Felicity into the car and pulls away just before the swarm finds them. 

Oliver leads her into an abandon foundry on the edge of the glades. It's boarded up but no ones around to swarm or tell them to leave.  
"I come here to get away from it all." He says, putting his suit jacket over her shoulders.  
"Thanks." She snuggles into the coat that smelled of him. They sit on steps facing the warehouse door, looking out at the sun setting.  
"Are you embarrassed to be seen with me? She asks, breaking the silence.  
"What? No. Why would you think that?"  
"Well when the swarm of paparazzi show up you pulled me away very quickly so that they didn't see me."  
"I didn't want them to see your face. As soon as they see your face they know who you are. And as soon as they know who you are, your privacy is stripped away. They find your house, your friends, family, the most embarrassing moments of your entire life. Once they know who you are, there is no hiding."  
"Wow. I didn't know it was that bad. I guess it's a good thing I have one friend and a mother. " and so on they went, through the hours of the night. Until around 1 am when Felicity nearly falls asleep with her head on Oliver's lap.  
"I guess you would like me to take you home now?" She nods sleepily.  
Oliver carries her in his arms to the car. And drives gently to her house. They walk up to her door, hand in hand.  
"I had a really nice time with you tonight."  
"Me too. Oh do you want your jacket back?" She says, beginning to take it from her shoulders.  
"Keep it."  
"Goodnight." She says.  
"Goodnight." He whispers back. She turns to close the door when she pulls it back open and kisses him. Her fingers running through his hair before she pulls away and closes the door behind her. She slides down the door, silently squealing. Oliver stands in shock before walking back to his car. She was the one. He could feel it. As soon as she hears his footsteps softening she lets the squeal loose as she runs to her bedroom to curl up next to the jacket. 

"I assume that Thea didn't help and you need my help?" Moira says without moving from the kitchen table. "No actually-"  
"That's alright because I found her."  
"Found who?"  
"The stable girl that's going to get you elected.  
"But mom thats the thing. I already found her."  
"Really? Who?"  
"Felicity." The name danced off his tongue.  
"How many followers does she have? Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram?"  
"I don't know."  
"Who is she? Why is she famous?"  
"She isn't. That's why she's so remarkable."  
"Oh oliver get your head out of your ass. You need a girl with political power. Someone who can brave the politics. Like Ashley. Or Hanna." Moira says, holding up pictures of women with their breasts displayed prominently.  
"Felicity can do that. She can do anything."  
"Okay if this girl is so 'remarkable' I want to see how she handles a club this Sunday night."  
"She works on Sunday's."  
"She has to WORK? How do you know she isn't a gold digger."  
"She's not. Let me see how friday works for her."  
"She's not gonna last." Moira says as Oliver leaves to go call Felicity. 

When Felicity grabs her paper that morning she is shocked to see the back of her head and herself being herded to the back by Oliver's arm. The headlines read,"Is Hottie Oliver Queen 'Off the Market'?" A scream goes down her throat, causing her to almost choke on her toothpaste. So it wasn't a dream. She stayed out till midnight and talked with her head on Oliver Queens lap. A few minutes later she plops down on the couch with a bowl of honey nut Cheerios and the article speculating who Oliver Queens date was. Little screams were muffled by her lips as they called her beautiful and how Oliver hasn't taken very many women on proper dates. She jumps a little when her phone buzzes and she sees its Oliver.  
"Hey," she says falling back onto the couch, her eyes scanning the cover photo.  
"Hey," his voice sounding droopy.  
"What's wrong?"  
"My mother wanted me to find a stable girlfriend to help me in the public eye and I was just going to let her run my love life....until I met you. And now she wants to make sure you have the guts to be my..... Girlfriend...," the sound of that made her shrivel with joy. "She wants to meet you out in a club and to please her I said I would find out when you are free. I'm really sorry. You don't have to."  
"I can do Friday."  
"Are you sure you want to? My mother can be a little....."  
"Of course I want to."  
"Okay....well she was wanting to go to the black panther to see how you handle talking to other big ticket voters."  
"Sounds great."  
"Alright. I'll see you at your place around 8. Thank you so much for understanding."  
"Of course. Bye,"  
"Bye,"  
Felicity was screaming at the top of her lungs and not even trying to muffle it. She was so excited that Oliver used the G word. When Oliver hung up he realized how much faster he was falling. 

She spent close to 2 hours deciding what to wear that night. It didn't help that everything she owned was not exactly 'club attire'. She called her friend Laurel to bring over clothing and advice. After all, Felicity didn't really go to clubs while attending MIT.  
"Okay so we can go with this cute black and gold one, or this adorable purple one."  
"Well the purple one looks so short you could see halfway up my hoo-ha, no offense by the way, so I'll go with the slightly longer black one."  
Laurel laughs and throws the black dress at Felicity. When Felicity returns from the bathroom with the dress Laurel is looking for Olivers Instagram. She here's the door open and continues scrolling through his page.  
"You were right. He IS cute." She looks up to see Felicity standing awkwardly in the mirror.  
"And so are you. Oh he's gonna love it."  
"You think?"  
"I know."

Oliver looks up to see Felicity walking in with her phone in hand, texting. She looks beautiful in a gold and black tight dress with a slit going up the leg. "Wow," Oliver says breathlessly as he gets up to meet her she looks up from her phone to see him. His pocket buzzed when he reached her.  
"Oh that's me. I just texted you to let you know I was here."  
"You look beautiful." He places a hand on her back and guides her to the table where her mother is waiting with a very pissed off Thea.  
"Why did I even have to come if I can't go dance?" Thea whines.  
"Because you need to meet Oliver's new 'girlfriend' and I need your help testing her. You can dance at home."  
Thea groans and lies with her froze head on the table when Oliver and Felicity walk up. Moira stands to greet them, kicking Thea with her foot. Thea reluctantly stands.  
"This is my mother Moira and my sister Thea." Oliver says, gesturing to each.  
"Hi, Felicity Smoak," Felicity says reaching acrossed the table to hug her. She starts towards Thea but backs off when the bitch-I-will-cut-you face. Oliver mouths be nice to Thea which is responded to by her mocking him.  
"So how did you two meet?" Thea asks monotonously, waving over drinks. They are all immediately served vodka.  
"Well actually we met at the mall." Felicity says.  
"I dropped my phone in soda and ran into the closest Tech Village and saw her. We clicked after that and I asked her out. Felicity was relieved when he left out her chewing on a pen. She liked that it was kind of their thing.  
"So that's where you ran off to after you called me back to the mall." Thea says with some anger in her voice.  
"Where did YOU go."  
"I met a guy, his names Roy. He's cute. We went back to his place and"  
"Okay Thea we get it."  
"So Felicity," Moira says, making Felicity's blood churn, Oliver wraps his fingers around hers as she sends the rest of the liquor down her throat. "There is no part of you that is in to Oliver for his money?"  
"No, no of course not. I do fine on my own."  
"Really. Well it's just that you're a sales clerk-"  
"MIT class of '09, my current job is just a stepping stone to get to where I really want to go. Writing codes for anything."  
Moira sits back in shock, watching Felicity get her drink refilled. 5 vodkas later Moira and Thea leave, leaving Oliver and Felicity alone.  
"My mother can be a little much. I'm sorry,"  
"Laurelsright. Youarepreeeeeettty," Felicity says, taking another sip of her drink. Oliver takes it from her mouth.  
"Okay I think it's time we cut you off-" Felicity takes off running out the door with one hand over her mouth, the other pushing people out of the way. Oliver runs right behind her apologizing to the people she shoves over. She runs for a bush and pukes, trying to hold her hair up. Oliver grabs her hair, and helps her to her knees. He rubs circles on her back.  
"How are you not,"she turns to swallow the puke in her mouth. "How are you not pulling your guts out right now. You had the same amount as me."  
"My body has learned how to control the alcohol whereas you don't look like you drink a lot of hard alcohol at all."  
"I must look disgusting right now. Can you just take me home?"  
"Of course. I just need to make one stop."  
Oliver walks Felicity to her apartment with a bag in his hand. He helps her out of her dress into a big tshirt and sweats, and onto the couch.  
"I got you some water and crackers." He sits beside her.  
"You don't have to stay."  
"But I want to. Thank you for putting up with her."  
"She's not that bad after a few drinks"  
Oliver cracks a smile that causes Felicity to laugh.  
"Okay so what are we watching?"  
"Well I'm kinda in the middle of watching Orange is the New Black."  
"I've been wanting to watch that. What episode are you on?"  
"Episode one." She says sheepishly.  
"Well then let's work on this binge," he says. She snuggles into his chest and starts episode 1. After 5 episodes Felicity is asleep in his lap with Oliver's arms around her. He carries her to her room and makes a bed on the floor for himself.


	2. Watch me sleep

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity and Oliver fall.

When she wakes up there are blankets on the floor and the smell of coffee coming from the kitchen.   
"I swear, it's like I will never see you sleep."  
Oliver laughs and flips another pancake onto the plate.   
"Feel better?" He asks turning off the griddle.   
"Much. Thank you. I'm sorry you had to stay. You could've slept on the couch you know."   
"But then I wouldn't be able to be there if you needed me."  
Felicity new at that moment she was falling. Sharp knocks ring out into the room, causing Felicity to jump. She walks over and opens the door to see her mother standing in her push-up dress and heels at 9 in the morning.   
"Mom! What are you doing here?!"  
"What? I can't come to see my daughter now?" She leans into Felicity's ear and whispers,"you forgot to tell me you were sleeping with Oliver Queen!"  
"No we didn't just- I got drunk- meeting his mom- we haven't- no."  
Oliver walks to meet her mother.   
"Hi. I'm Oliver Queen."  
"I know. Who doesn't know who you are? And I'm Donna Smoak. Felicity's single mother."  
Felicity smacks her own forehead and looks at the floor trying to find an awkwarder moment possible. She found nothing. Oliver only raised his eyebrows and smiled at her.   
"Would you like to join us for breakfast?"   
Felicity's head shoots up as her wide eyes on her head shake back and forth.   
"I would love too."  
"Don't worry. You met my mother, now I'll meet yours." He whispers into her ear, his lips tickling her velvety skin.   
"So Felicity is the mystery woman."  
Oliver eyebrows knit together. Obviously he hadn't seen the front page of any newspaper yet.   
Felicity hops up.  
"Those reporters who found us on our date, they all have different stories about what went down, and who I am," Felicity says showing him the paper.   
"Uhhh....yeah I was trying to make sure they wouldn't be swarming her apartment at 2 am."  
"Considering on what I've seen from how many speculations on who I am I'm glad they don't know my name yet."  
"What brings you to Starling Ms.   
Smoak?"  
They carry on their conversation through the day, Oliver took Felicity and her mother on a tour of Starling to see the hidden beauties in the now ugly city. Felicity sat back and watched Oliver entertain her mother and realized, she was in love. Not that she would say it out loud because that might scare him off, but in her head and maybe, just maybe, she will tell Laurel. But at that moment it was her own little secret.   
He calls her every night. No matter what. They talk about everything you can talk about. They'll talk about the new geniuses that walk into Tech Village not knowing how to charge their phones, or even talking futures. Any thing and everything is open.   
Until tonight all they said when they hung up was goodnight. But tonight, he said I love you. And she just sat in silence. And they sat for over a minute in silence, listening to each other breathe, until she hung up. Felicity doesn't understand why she couldn't say it back. She wanted to. She loves him. But it felt like there was a wall in her throat preventing her from saying anything. She had others say they love her. But none had said it with so much feeling in their voice. So much love.   
The next night he called the first thing she says is,"Come over." And she ends the call before he gets the chance to respond. When Oliver gets to her apartment there is a note on the door saying to come in. Oliver pushes the door open and hears silverware clinking from the back room. He follows the sound to the bathroom where he sees her sitting in the tub eating cake.   
"What's wrong?"  
"Does something have to be wrong for me to want to see you?"  
He sits next to her in the tub.   
She leans over to whisper into his ear.   
"I love you too." She rests her head on his shoulder, putting the plate onto the toilet seat. "And when you said it last night, I didn't know how to respond."  
"I didn't mean to pressure you."  
"But the thing is, I love you. And I've had other guys tell me they love me, but never the way you said it. When you told me you had so much love and feeling in your voice. And so I couldn't make my mouth work. I wanted so bad to tell you but I-"  
Oliver tilts his head to the side and pulls her in, touching noses, his lips brushing hers for permission. She presses into his lips with hers.   
"I'm really glad I get to do that." He says against her lips.   
She snuggles her head between his neck and shoulders, fitting like a puzzle piece.   
"I'm in love with you Felicity Smoak."  
"I'm in love with you Oliver Queen."  
"So what kind of cake do we have here," he says grabbing the plate.   
"Triple chocolate."  
"How did you know my favorite!?"   
Felicity laughs at his excitement over cake.   
"It's my favorite too."  
They sit, eating the rest of her cake in her tub, until Oliver looks at the time, 2:00 am.   
"I should probably get going."  
"Why don't you stay? Why don't you just fall asleep next to me? Please?"  
"Of course,"  
Follows her back to her room where they fall asleep in a tangle of arms and legs.   
"Guess who just asked me out? TOMMY MERLYN!!!!!!!!! FREAKIN OUT RN SO TEXT ME BACK YOU LOSER!!!" Pops up on Felicity's phone. She listens to Oliver's faint snores before grabbing her phone.   
"WHAT DID YOU SAY?"  
"YES OF COURSE"  
"OLIVER SPENT THE NIGHT"  
"oooo did it get all steamy last night? I WANT DETAILS!"  
"We sat in my tub for hours and ate cake and then I had him fall asleep next to me."  
"Come on. You're telling me you didn't have sex. HES REALLY HOT"  
"IKR I CAN FEEL HIS ABS AGAINST MY BACK RN!"  
"You are texting me while that hot thing is in your bed? IM LEAVING SO YOU CAN ENJOY THIS SEXLESS SNUGGLE. HAVE FUN"  
Felicity smiles as she sets her phone down and snuggles back down into his chest and arms. A squeal goes down her throat at the realization that she's in bed with her BOYFRIEND.   
When he wakes up she's gone.   
There's a note on her dresser next to the clock that read 9:27.   
"I'm sorry. I got called in to work. Feel free to stay or eat whatever." A few lines a crossed out and followed with a scrawley 'Felicity' at the bottom. He smiles. She babbles even when writing. He makes her bed and leaves a note under her name.   
"Guess you finally got to watch me sleep -Oliver"


	3. The Last Straw

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity and Laurel hatch a plan that ends unexpectedly

"What do you think about a double date with my friend Felicity and her new boyfriend?" Laurel asks Tommy. 'She knows I can't say no to her beautiful naked body lying next to me. She has to.' He thought, looking at her tousled hair covering her face.   
"Sure," he says.   
"Great!" Laurel says grabbing her phone from her dresser.  
"Tommy is IN. now you just have to get Oliver on board." She texts before snuggling into Tommy's chest.

Felicity smiles when she see's Laurel's text from under the counter at Tech Village. She actually was hoping it was Oliver but this was a close second. She finishes showing her customer how to set up their new phone and hurries to text Oliver to see if he was in. As soon as she sends the texted responds with an "I'd love to. Call you tonight <3" a smile lights up her face.   
"You think this is funny?!?" The customer asks. Shit. "My phone is dropped in the pool and you think it's funny?!?" Felicity puts on a serious face that is hard to hold to calm the man down. 

"I think Tommy will really like Oliver from how you've described him," Felicity says to Laurel as they walk in to the restaurant where Tommy and Oliver are laughing their asses off at something way to hilarious.   
"Did I miss something?" Felicity says smiling at them. "You owe me twenty bucks." She says to Laurel, who rolls her eyes.   
"Dinah Laurel Lance! You forgot to mention that your friend Felicity is dating my best friend from birth!"   
"You forgot to tell me you know Oliver Queen so I think we are even." She says, sitting next to Tommy. Oliver stands up to pull out Felicity's chair.   
"You look beautiful," Oliver whispers into her ear. Felicity's cheeks turn as bright as her red pen. "So what are we waiting for. What are we eating?" He asks Tommy and Laurel. She watches his bright eyes brighten the room. His smile make everything better. His arms. Oh god his arms. He leans over to her.   
"Felicity, this is me noticing you staring."  
"I am? Sorry I just, you are very- your eyes are really- and your smile and oh hey look it's the waiter." He looks at her like she's the missing piece of his puzzle. Her bright pink lips moving with her words. And that smile. Oh god that smile. That smile can melt him in the dead of winter. That smile made him weak.   
"My mother has asked me to check out our China companies this weekend and a private jet can be pretty lonely. Would you all like to come with me?"  
"I'm in!" Tommy pipes up.   
"I can't." Felicity says sadly. "My boss has me booked the entire weekend resetting the servers. Maybe next time?"   
"Of course," grabbing her hand.  
"I'm in! The firm can survive a weekend without me." Laurel says.   
"Maybe we can go next time just you and me." Oliver whispers in her ear.   
That was it. The deal breaker. As soon as the check comes in she hurries him out of the restaurant. His eyebrows knit together.  
"What's wrong. Did I do som-" she presses him against the building. She has no idea where it came from she just really wanted to kiss him. It felt right.   
"Do you want to go back to my place?" She asks against his lips.  
"Are you sure?" He whispers.   
"Positive," as she smiles in to the kiss.


	4. It's All My Fault

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Oliver's trip to China with Tommy and Laurel goes awry, Felicity is lost and left alone with for all she knows, her best friend and boyfriend dead at sea.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is a bit longer to make up for the previous short chapter

"I'll miss you," he says, leaning into her.   
"Promise to call me? I mean you don't have to it's just I don't really remember not having you call me even though it's only been a month and a half but I will miss it and I really like talking to you so you should call me okay?"  
"Okay," Oliver laughs. He kisses her forehead and walks toward Laurel and Tommy beside jet. Their fingers stay connected until his fingers pull away from hers. 

She blames herself. She was too pushy. She didn't receive a call from him last night or anything this night. She keeps thinking, maybe if I wasn't too pushy, or too- I don't know. She sits till 2 am, waiting. She falls asleep on the couch, only to be awaken by the back up alarm on her phone. She turns on the news and runs back to her room to get dressed. She runs back out a second later calling her boss at Tech Village.   
"Hey yea I'm gonna be late, yeah there's traf-" she drops the phone on the floor. The news banner on the screen says "Oliver Queen and Thomas Merlyn missing with civilian Laurel Lance." She fumbles to find the remote and turn the volume up.   
"We are receiving reports that the Queen jet with the a pilot and Mr. Queen and passengers Tommy Merlyn and Laurel Lance. The plane never reached its destination in Beijing and went off the radar several thousand miles off course..." Felicity grabs the nearest pillow and screams. Tears pool in her eyes. A voice shouts from her phone on the floor.   
"SHUT UP! My friends just went missing and all you care about is me getting to work!" She sobs into the phone.   
"YOU CANT FIRE ME IM THE ONLY ONE WHO KNOWS HOW TO RESET THE SERVERS." She screams into the phone before hanging up and curling into a ball in her kitchen. 

All she wanted was to hear his voice. See his face calling her on her cell. His voice telling her it would be okay. Everything was fine. Pieces of her died when the reports came in of impossible sightings all over the world. She keeps going back to the morning before the flight. Maybe if she hadn't left for work, if she didn't let him leave, they would all still be here. All of them. Two weeks after the news report, she found the energy to get up out of bed and take a shower. A week after that she finally reset the servers and returned to work. She never stopped blaming herself. She slowly began returning to reality, one shuffle at a time. It was silly, she thought. I've known him for two months now and I'm this broken. Why can't I be crying over Laurel? She asks herself when she looks in the mirror in her room. She looks at her own red eyes, tear soaked cheeks, and dirty hair. She knew it deep down. But she couldn't bring herself to realize it though, so it stayed buried. In the pit of her mind. She slowly stopped waiting for phone calls late at night and began sleeping in her own bed. She blamed her self for 5 years. And for those 5 years nothing good happened. 5 years after that fateful day when her best friend and the man she loved left on the plane, a smelly, bearded, scraggly haired man walk into Tech Village. She disregards the smell and finished cleaning her desk.   
"Hi sir, what can I do-" she looks into his eyes. It was the eyes that haunted her dreams for two years. It couldn't be. He's nearly unrecognizable. A scraggly beard and hair covering his face. His smile. But when she looked into the smelly mans eyes, she saw him. 

When he saw her, her smile made him melt. The smile that kept him going through all the years. He walked toward her lowered head, she was sporting her signature high ponytail and lipstick. She begins her sales talk and he is speechless. He wants to scream her name from the rooftops. He wants to cup her delicate face. Her smooth skin. He wants to fell her soft lips against his rough. But all he can do is watch her fingers type on the keep board. Until she looks up. And her eyes pierce into his. She knew who he was. He wanted to jump. He wanted to run behind the desk and hug her. Wrap her tiny body in his.   
"Oliver?" She asks breathlessly. She figured it was a cruel joke. Her eyes, messing with her. Until he cocks his head to the side.   
"Felicity." He says.   
She runs from behind the desk and jumps into his body. Her arms clinging to his neck. Her legs wrap tightly around his waist. Almost as if he would be pulled away from her. His hands covered her back, as if he would be pulled from her. Tears pool in her eyes as a lump clogs her throat.   
"I missed you," he whispers into her ear, his beard tickling her neck.   
"I thought you were dead," she cries into his neck. He sets her down on the floor, but neither releases the other.   
"I'm sorry," she can hear the pain in his voice.   
"Hey babe, who's your new friend?" A voice says from behind Oliver. They turn to see a man, sturdily built with black hair. A confused look is spread against his face. Pieces of Oliver break.   
"This is my- he's my- we're.......this is my friend Oliver."   
"Well I brought you lunch,"  
A squeeze of Oliver's hand on her shoulder tells her he understands. But he shouldn't have to understand. She can't even look at him. He kisses the top of her head, tears in her eyes saying I'm sorry, and walks out the door with out looking back.   
"I'm not sure how to say this without offending you so I'm not going to say no offense but here I go. Your friend smells,"   
Felicity pushes the sandwich into his hands.   
"Go to hell Ray. Oh I'm sorry. Go to hell BOSS." She yells with tears streaming down her face. She runs to her car, thankful she grabbed her purse and avoiding the walk of shame to get her keys. She gets to her apartment, runs to her bathroom and sits in her bathtub. She sobs into her sweater. She can't help seeing him sitting on the other side of the tub, eating cake with her for hours even thought the faucet was digging into his back. She does nothing but sob for two hours until she decides to put her pain into good use. She tracks down the hospital Laurel was in and wipes away her raccoon eyes. 

The next time she saw him he was clean shaven, his hair cut short. He looked like he did when he left for Beijing. He was sitting between Laurel and Tommy's hospital beds, wearing a tan leather jacket. The faint beeps of their monitors is the only noise in the room.   
"I'm sorry you had to see that." She says, walking to the chair beside him. She sits slowly.   
"It wasn't easy. For me to move on. It probably wasn't easy for you either. But it took me months to even return to work. 3 years to go on a date. Everywhere I looked I saw you, your company, your eyes in your mother, your smile. I say on my couch for two days after you were discovered missing. Hoping you would call me. I finally came to the idea that you all died that day. I accepted Rays offer for dinner and tried to accept reality; that you may have died, but it didn't mean I had to.  
"You don't have to apologize. I was dead. You weren't. I can't expect you to drop everything you've built to return to the way it was before the crash."  
"Can we get some coffee? I kinda slept in a bathtub last night."   
A brief smile crosses Oliver's face before it's gone.   
"Sure."   
They leave the nurses to empty the bed pans and walk toward the cafeteria.   
"How did you survive. Laurel and Tommy are barely living but you are moving and walking and talking-"  
"I love you. I survived for you. Every day I woke up and thought of getting back to you. It kept me going."  
"That's not how this is supposed to work. You can't be in love with me. You are supposed to be heartbroken and hate that I moved on. Just say that you don't love me. Make it easy and say you don't love me."  
He grabs her face and pulls her up to his mouth. He kisses her. His lips tilt to the side, pushing into hers. And then they weren't. He pulls her from him.  
"Don't ask me to say that I don't love you." And with that he releases her soft face and walks back to the hospital room. She is left dumb founded in the middle of the hall. 

She calls him that night.  
"Will you stay with me?" She asks. She had to find out wether or not she still was in love with him or if she was meant to be with Ray. Even though she technically already dumped Ray for being a jack ass, she had to find out. She wasn't prepared for Oliver to show up with a tub of chocolate ice cream and wine. Once the ice cream runs out they move from the couch to her bed. She sits against the head board next to him.   
"How did you survive unscathed when Tommy still hasn't woken up and Laurels in and out of consciousness."  
Until now, it had just been eye contact, light questions.   
"I have my share," he says.   
She turns towards him, a half empty bottle in her hand. He takes a swig from her.   
"Can I see them?" She whispers. Her eyes are wide with desire and the smile that made him melt. He wordlessly starts to unbutton his shirt, revealing his hardened chest. She pulls the shirt to the sides, unable for him to wait to take it off, himself. Her cool fingers touch his warm chest, sending a shiver through his body. Her fingertips investigate the intricate swirls of the scar tissue on his right pectoral, the design so intricately beautiful it reminded her of a snowflake. Her fingers move to explore each mark on his chest. She studies each little piece of scar tissue with an intensity that made them both forget to breathe. She traces the lines down to the small of his back until his pants stopped her finger. She moved around him until there was nothing more to see. She sat back in front of him. She sets the bottle on the desk behind her and grabs his face, pulling his mouth to hers. His hands grab her waist, guiding her legs around him. Her fingers run through his hair.


	5. What Next?

“So where do we go from here?”   
“What do you mean Felicity?”  
Oliver turns on his side to look at her laying on her back, eyes studying the ceiling.  
“I mean that I don’t know if i am really that emotionally stable to return back to 5 years ago and pick up where we left off. I mean I’m pretty sure I just broke up with a great boyfriend and had a not-so-rebound rebound in less than a day.”  
She flips toward him to meet his eyes.  
“Does that sound sane to you?”  
“No. It sounds perfectly insane. But that’s you. You eat cake in a bathtub, you choose to willingly meet my mother and sister at a bar, you babble to the point where everyone around you is mystified. You invent magical beads that help bring my phone back to life and give me a great opening for a pickup line that, from what I saw went pretty great. That, Felicity Smoak, Ms. MIT class of ‘09, is what makes you insanely remarkable human being with a beautiful mind containing twice the IQ of any man who thinks you aren’t.”  
She raises her eyebrows at the mention of the great cake meltdown. The happy memory of her and Oliver sitting across from each other in a bathtub brought a smile to her face.  
“Soon it will be Ms. Head of IT Department at QC,”  
“That has a nice ring to it,” his face bears a smile so contagious Felicity can’t help but laugh.  
“However how sweet that was, you still haven’t told me our next step.”  
“I was thinking we get up out of this bed and go see our friends.”  
“Sounds like a plan,” she says rolling over to the edge of the bed.  
+++  
“What happened on that island Oliver?”  
“Horrible things.”  
“Like what? You can tell me.”  
“Maybe I’ll take you up on that later, but right now, the stitches are still setting, I want to let them heal before opening up those wounds again.”  
The whole time they talk, Felicity’s eyes are on the mangled bodies and faces of her friends, and Olivers are on her, as if he can’t bare the sight of anything else.   
“Can you tell me one thing?” She attempts to pull her teary eyes from the closed bruised ones Laurel sports.  
There is no response from him, only a hum of acknowledgment.  
“Did she-did they suffer very much? They look like they are in really bad shape but none of those are scar worthy, and definitely not in the number I saw last night.” She’s facing him completely, attempting to study his eyes, but those 5 years have hardened them into unreadable.  
“Not until the end. I did my best to keep the safe but the two weeks before we were rescued was when they got hit really hard. I’m really sorry Felicity, it’s all my fault.”  
Her hand reaches out to grab his wrist, her thumb rubbing circles on his thick forearm.  
“No. You can’t-you can’t think like that. It’s not your fault. You obviously took the hardest beating keeping them safe. I won’t let you think like that.”  
“But look at them. They aren’t okay. They look half dead, all because they came with me on that stupid boat. And the sad part is, I didn’t wish, not even for one minute, for you to be with me. How can you even think about loving a man who doesn’t wish to be with you at every waking minute?” His eyes begin to tear up as he pulls away from her.  
“I’m sorry I wasted your time.”   
He pushes past her shocked body, she turns as if she wants to follow but pulls her out stretched hand to her chest, her mouth left open for words to come out but none did.  
+++  
When she finds him again he’s sitting on a bench in the hall, studying the vending machine. He can obviously hear the clicking of her heels but doesn’t want to move or doesn’t care.  
Felicity slides her body to the edge of the bench and waits. They sit in silence through the traffic of wheelchairs and crying people passing. An hour must’ve passed before he turns toward her.  
“Why are you still here?”  
Her knees turn toward him, brushing his.  
“You,”  
“How can you even stand me. You saw your best friend. I did that. You can’t possibly love me-”  
Her hands are on his face before she realizes they’re moving. Her lips press into his, barely tilted. His hand find her knees just as she pulls back, her nose brushing his.  
“Don’t ask me to say that I don’t love you,”  
She leaves him.   
She leaves him to figure it out. To get it through his thick skull that she still wants him, what they had, what they could have. That she doesn't care about what happened in the past. On that fucked up island. All she cares about is that he is home and he brought Laurel and Tommy back alive. And that all she wants is for him to stop blaming himself and to move on. To see his future. Their future. Not to see his past. That island. But a future. Wether or not that involves her or not.   
+++  
Felicity isn't sure why they don't kick her out of Laurel and Tommy's hospital room. Especially an hour past the end of visiting hours. But she doesn't question it. Maybe they just forgot about her. And she decides to let it take its course. Until a nurse comes in and doesn't bother her. That's when she notices him. Standing right inside the door. Leaning against the wall. She watches the nurse check up on the two before she leaves. Leaving just Felicity, Oliver, and the steady hum of machines attached to Laurel and Tommy.   
Felicity is just about to ask when he speaks up.   
“It helps to have a mother who co-funds the hospital.”  
“I'm sorry I left you like that, earlier. I was just trying to do my best to help bring you back to reality. I really do care about you a lot. And it hurts to watch you bury yourself in this hole your digging. And so the hole maybe to deep for anyone to pull you out.”  
“I know. And it helped. I still feel terrible. For this. But you said that I need to stop. So I'll try. For you. Please don't leave me. You're my light at the end of a very dark tunnel.”  
Felicity stands up from the chair at Laurels bedside and nearly runs to him. All of her weight hits him full force in the chest as her arms wrap around, fingers entangling with the material of his sweater. Sobs pour from her mouth, muffled by his mass of a chest.   
“I missed you so much,” he says, burying his face into the top of her head.   
“I missed you too.”  
They stand holding eachother as if something new will rip them apart if they release. I'm   
“C’mon” he says into her hair. “I've got a feeling I know what we both need.”  
+++  
“I was wreck for the first few months. Laying by the phone. Hoping to hear your laughing voice on the other end saying you made it home. I would've given anything to hear you voice. I slept on the couch day and night. Not wanting to move. Probably thinking that the moment I was away from the phone was when you would call. And I would've screwed it up. The little time I was away from the couch was when I moved into the bathtub and made a tomb of blankets, the phone plugged in next to me. I know. I know. It was a safety hazard but I didn't care. I didn't care about anything but hearing you saying that it would all be okay. And then one day, I got up. It was to answer the door. I figured the neighbors had called the police, thinking I was dead. But it was some new guy hired at Tech Village tasked with bringing me in to reset the servers. And slowly my life started to put itself back together, the missing pieces filled with hobbies. I was like a fragile doll for so long. Right before you shoes up a few weeks ago I had finally gotten used to a new normal. But those peices remade to replace you and Laurel didn't and wouldn't ever fit quite right.”  
Her mouth opens to take another bite of big belly burger.   
“I missed you. Your laugh. Your smile. The way you crinkle your nose when you get flustered. How you manage to find a positive in every situation, or make one of you can't. But not for one second, did I wish you were there with me. I didn't want you to be stuck in the same hell I was in. So I looked at the picture of us you snuck into my wallet the night before everyday. And promising myself that I would find a way back. For all of us. I had to get back to the girl smiling back at me while encased in my arms that wrapped around you from behind.”  
A smile lights up her face.   
“I forgot I did that.”  
A ring from her cellphone causes her to jump. The contact says SC Hospital, causing her heart to sink.   
-Hello?  
-Mr. Queen told us to call you if anything changes  
-.......  
-Mr. Merlyn is awake.  
A breath Felicity didn't know she was holding in is released.   
-We will be there right away. Thank you so much.   
-Of course. We will see you soon.  
The call ends and Felicity remembers to breathe.   
“Tommy's awake.”  
“Let’s go.”


	6. Last words

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver and Felicity face harsh realities with themselves and others.

“He's had some serious brain damage and traumatic shock, and due to his lack of memory recall, it’s unknown if he will ever regain the memories from the past 5 years. It’s possible for his condition to change immensely at any moment so we will continue to closely monitor him.”

Oliver and Felicity arrived in Tommy and Laurel’s room just at the end of the doctor’s analysis. Malcolm Merlyn appears emotionless, looking at the doctor as if he had just explained to him someone else’s condition. Just full of nods and understanding with no clear feeling on how he felt about seeing his son for the first time in half a decade.

Oliver decides to walk right in past the doctor and Malcolm to where Tommy was lying in the bed.

“You look horrible,”

“You don’t look to great yourself,” Tommy replies with a grin. 

“You should see the other guy,” Oliver chuckles.

Felicity finds herself wandering over to the side of Laurels bed. The side of her face having small cuts and bruises accompanied by stitches above her eyebrow and in the crook of her mouth. Felicity couldn’t see much past her neck except for bruises and more stitches peaking out from the gown. Her hands felt so cold in Felicity’s, so weightless. She almost thought she was hallucinating when she felt Laurel’s finger move in her own.

“Laurel?”

This time she feels two fingers try to squeeze hers

“Laurel?” tears spring to Felicity’s eyes. “Laurel please wake up, please. 

The machines beeping starts to speed up 

“That must mean something good right? Oh, please let it be good.” 

By now the beeping and Felicity’s pleas have caught the attention of all four men.

“Laurel?” Tommy tries to say but his voice is too raspy for anything more than a squeak to come out that loud.

Her eyelids begin to flutter and the squeezing from her hand becomes stronger. Oliver manages to get Tommy’s bed closer to Laurel’s so he can grab her other warming hand. Laurels lips begin to move just as her eyes open, drawing Felicity in closer. 

“He’s a keeper, don’t let this one get away. But be careful.” Laurel croaks just loud enough for Felicity to hear before her eyes roll back and her machines go crazy.

“No. no. no no no. this can’t be happening. Not again. I can’t lose you again. No Laurel no stop, Laurel come back. Do you hear me Laurel? Stay with me okay? Please?”

Two nurses try to pull screaming Felicity away and pry her from Laurel so the doctors could start CPR, but it was only when Oliver came and bear hugged her out of the room that she let go. She turns and sobs into Oliver’s shirt as her rubs his hands up and down her back, pulling her in.

...

Felicity is in shock for the rest of the day.

She couldn’t wrap her mind around that Laurel actually died this time. The she’s not coming back. There won’t be an amazing rescue by fishermen. She won’t turn up 5 years later in a hospital bed in a coma from unknown causes. There isn’t any more Laurel. She’s gone. And she’s not going to come back. 

She and Oliver were sitting in silence in her car, while he drove her home. 

“When Laurel was talking to me, right before she- before she said ‘Be careful’” she says, breaking the silence. “She was talking about you. Why do I need to be careful? What the hell happened on the island, Oliver?”

Without words Oliver makes a U-turn and peels off in the other direction

,,,  
“You’re him.”

“I’m not proud of what I did, but I did what I did to try and keep us alive. And that’s not an excuse by any means, just that I wouldn’t be here, Tommy wouldn’t be here, Laurel… Listen, I don’t expect you to understand what I’ve done or try to justify my actions, I just needed you to know and understand that what I did was my attempt to keep us all alive.”

Felicity is sitting motionless in the foundry, looking into a green crate, inspecting its belongings. 

“You are why this city is going crazy, you’re the man in the hood.”

Oliver sat on the metal table in the basement of an old warehouse, looking completely vulnerable. And he was. He wanted her to not be afraid of him, to trust him. He wasn’t sure if she ever would, but it was understandable, her best friend died after a trip went wrong, how would anyone trust the man who essentially killed their bestfriend?

“How many?”

He knew without a doubt she meant how many people he killed.

“Do you really want to know?”

“Yes. No. I don’t know, Oliver. I have no idea how or what to think!” Felicity is crying hysterically now, her hands shaking as she tries to make sense of everything. “My best friend just died and you just told me you’re the masked man running around this city leaving arrows in thugs and who knows what else?!”

Tears are streaming down her face. Oliver slides from the table over to in front of Felicity; he doesn’t dare touch her in fear of her leaving him. Instead he stands in front of her, waiting, for her to decide. It took everything he had to resist the urge to wrap his arms around her, to try and comfort her. 

In an instant Felicity goes from a sobbing, shaking, wreck to blowing her nose, wiping the tears away, and composed as though her friend isn’t dead and she didn’t just find out her- she had no idea what they were- was the hooded vigilante. 

“I need to leave. I- I can’t be here, with you, right now.”

All Oliver could hear after that was the clacking of her heels against the floor.


End file.
